


鋼の神

by cryingat7am



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, 大神 | Okami (Video Games)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, but these were my two fandoms at the time and i loved this cross so deal, does this make any sense? no, first chapter is weirdly 1st person but then it goes to 3rd, tfw an eight-headed dragon is all up in your head smh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:55:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22585210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cryingat7am/pseuds/cryingat7am
Summary: The beast spoke one final time, its hot, thick breath reeking of decay blowing over Edward, and he had to force himself not to scream as culminated realization sunk in.“I wish darkness upon the world.”
Kudos: 2





	1. 01. エドの最後夢

**Author's Note:**

> originally written between 3/25 and 8/17 in 2012.

It slithers up, coiling around my body, my limbs. I can’t move, can’t breathe; it’s suffocating me, this invisible force. ‘The Gate?’ I wonder, voice not quite in my head. But why? I hadn’t had a nightmare of that wretched structure, of that piercing eye and those paralyzing tendrils, in the months since restoring my limbs and Al’s body.

  
None of those unconscious revisits to that hell ever subjected me to tangible pain, either.

  
Under the pressure of the unidentifiable force, electricity shot through my skin, flesh and bone, sparking down to the tips of my fingers and toes. A headache unlike any other bloomed from the base of my skull, messaging its way throughout my entire brain. It throbbed over my temples, pounded behind my eyes. Nausea built from the pit of my stomach in result of the force and I dully recalled this was what a migraine felt like. All the while, my lungs refused to expand, heart pounding frantically and irregularly.

_  
O Mortal, utter the words; utter them and lets you and I form a blood pact._

**  
No!**

_  
All you’re to do is speak the words, sacrificing nothing more than mere breath, and I shall grant you power._

**  
Just leave me alone!!**

_  
Power above all else; the world will be at your, at OUR, fingertips! All you must do is repeat these words:_

  
Tears, formed in pain and through the emotions assaulting my core, pricked behind my clamped shut eyelids. Daringly I pry them open, using all my strength to accomplish the easy feat. There, mere inches away, was the face of my assailant.

  
Its head was comparable to the length of two cars, smooth scales poking from under the firm metal plating of gold lining its long snout. A large head dress, shaped to emulate open flame, sat at the crest of its thin skull, a symbol I couldn’t understand painted in the middle. Eyes adorned with slitted pupils in a burning red pierced into mine, the play on words nearly literal. It was as if a sharpened blade had just been driven through the very core of my soul.

  
The beast spoke one final time, its hot, thick breath reeking of decay blowing over me, and I had to force myself not to scream as culminated realization sunk in.

  
“ ** _I wish darkness upon the world._** ”


	2. 02. 日本へ目が覚めってる

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Jade?' Ed thought idly, fingering the smooth and almost translucent beads around a funny strip of paper secured to the necklace. 'The writing sort of looks Xingese.'

Staring off ahead blindly, Edward panted heavily, shoulders heaving with the effort. Sweat trailed downwards and dripped from his chin. Despite the perspiration his lips were dry and cracked and absently, without a forethought, he wetted them. Swallowing firmly, he gave a shaky sigh as the utter terror cleared from his mind.

  
He frowned. It wasn’t uncommon for him to awake with a yell. The fact he hadn’t a clue as to _why_ was what bothered him. A dull throb radiating from his side interrupted the musings and as he reached to hold the site, he paused and looked down

  
A robe of white material, between the weight and feel of silk and cotton, hung loosely over his shoulders. Pulling weighty coverings off of his lap, Ed found a sash tied in a relaxed knot around his waist and—thank _god_ —shorts of some sort. Most peculiar of all was the string of the beads doubled up and hung low around his neck.

 _  
Jade?_ Ed thought idly, fingering the smooth and almost translucent beads around a funny strip of paper secured to the necklace. _The writing sort of looks Xingese_ —As a recollection of recent events slowly formed in the back of his mind, the sound of soft steps caught his attention and halted the gears in his mind that had begun working again.

  
Looking up and over, he was just quick enough to catch the door of latticed wood and paper slide open. The space was filled by a woman and even though he normally lacked awareness of the opposite sex, Ed couldn’t help but blush.

  
Her skin was fair, contrasted greatly by the dark hair that framed her young face and fell over her thin shoulders. Inexplicably his gaze faltered over the end of the length and where it rested over her particularly large, particularly _exposed_ chest. It was no help when she neared and lowered herself to her knees at his side.

  
“How are you feeling?” She asked and immediately he jerked his gaze upward, the motion anything but subtle. Wishing to put that fumble behind him quickly, he took notice of the warm dark brown of her eyes and the beauty mark located under the left.

  
“I, uh,” Ed faltered a moment, his inner workings jumbled once again. “… Good. I’m good, but… Wh-who are…”

  
“Ah! My sincerest apologies,” Hands folded neatly in her lap, she bowed her head deeply. “I am Tsuzu Rao, the humble priestess of southern Ryoshima Coast and of Sei’an City.”


	3. 03. 行方は知た

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Do you know of a country by the name of ‘Xing’?” He asked, hopes lifting just a little. If this was a nation bordering the Eastern superpower, it would be impossible that the name would be unheard of.
> 
> The soft shake of her head put out that rare spark of optimism.

“Um, Ms. Priestess…” Edward’s tentative step into a question was interrupted by the very woman with a quiet, musical laugh.

  
“You needn’t be so formal, young Edward. I can sense your lack of interest in the divine Gods that watch over this land. My title means little to nothing in your eyes. There should be no reason you must address me by it.” She said with a graceful smile. “Please. ‘Rao’ functions just as well.”

  
Ed bit his tongue against the want to ask just _how_ it had been possible she knew he wasn’t one for faith. There were much more important matters at hand.

  
“‘This land’…” He murmured, eyes trained on the spirals of steam rising from the tea cup set in front of him on the low table they were seated at. “Ms. Rao. Where am I?” He raised his gaze in anticipation of the answer.

  
A delicate hand under her own small and handle-less cup, the other loosely curled around the white porcelain side, Rao raised it to take a sip.

  
“As I mentioned only a short time ago, this is the southern reaches of Ryoshima Coast.” There was a quiet ‘ _clnk_ ’ as she set her cup back atop its plate. “Ryoshima, however, is a part of the country Nippon.”

  
“‘Nippon’…” Even as the word rolled off his tongue, Ed could never recall hearing the name before. East of Xing were many other countries and there was the chance this was one of them. Something in the back of his mind said that, despite as much as he’d like it to be true, it wasn’t. Even with the possibilities, this place just felt innately otherworldly.

  
“Do you know of a country by the name of ‘Xing’?” He asked, hopes lifting just a little. If this was a nation bordering the Eastern superpower, it would be impossible that the name would be unheard of.

  
The soft shake of her head put out that rare spark of optimism.

  
“I regret to say that I have not.” Rao admitted with an honestly apologetic tone. The corners of her lips twitching upward once more, she pressed on, “Is this ‘Xing’ the place from which you hail?”

  
Eyes wide, Ed blinked. “No.” He replied with a forced chuckle. “It’s just the last place I remember being.” _Though I was so out of it even crossing the desert is a huge blur…_ “I thought maybe this could’ve been some place close."

  
Another laugh left her and he was clueless as to why until she spoke, clarifying the matter.

  
“It would be rather difficult for Nippon to share its borders, the great Nure’s watery domain surrounding us wholly.”

 _  
An ocean?_ Ed wondered, figuring ‘Nure’ was some sort of deity for water—perhaps the sea specifically.

 _  
Is this an island nation…?!_ Before he had much time to expand on the matter, the woman seated across from him seem to notice something from the edge of her vision. Only a brief moment after she was hastily turning toward the door, the palms of her hands pressed flat against the ground as she bowed deeply and disappeared behind the table.

  
A little panicked by such a sudden reaction, he took no time in looking over. There, stepping forward to fill the threshold, was a woman of impressive presence.

  
Dark hair hung long down her back, a wrap of brilliant red preventing strands from obstructing her face and the thin lines of paint decorating it. Around her thin neck hung a beaded necklace, a large pendant of dark jade almost out of place on the strand. Under it were simple, yet obviously expensive, garments of white secured with a sash of matching red. The same hue bordered an outer robe of rich indigo that pooled around her on the finished maple flooring. A scarf of lighter, perhaps even semi-translucent, fabric was held loosely around the figure’s waist.

  
It was just as Ed wondered who exactly stood before them that Rao spoke, inadvertently answering the unasked question.

  
“Your Majesty the Queen. What is it that I, a humble and loyal servant, might aid you with on this day?”


	4. 04. 予言の闇

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The other woman made no remark for a moment, and then another as the words the Queen said fully soaked into her mind and she understood them with totality. Even as she did, they did nothing in the way of swaying her decisions; her choices and what was still to be done.

“My dearest Rao,” Queen Himiko began once they were both excused out into the fresh air, free of the foreign visitor’s presence. Her voice held a stern note but retained a soft edge that kept it from sounding too overbearingly reprimanding. “I have foreseen the arrival of that boy, and I will inform you that with him comes no good fortune.”

  
Standing behind the regal woman by no less than five full steps on the shadowed rōka, hands clasped neatly together in front of herself, Rao observed the grains of wood beneath both of their feet.

  
“I indeed felt a lingering, ominous aura. It was not only surrounding him; it was what lead me to happen upon him, as well.” The priestess admitted solemnly, head bowed in respect.

  
“It seems rather foolish of you to have willingly taken him into your care, aware of a possible danger threatening the temple; threatening yourself.”

  
“It did not seem as if it were his own energy.” Rao defended the stranger, even and calm as one could contradicting a highly authoritative figure. “He appears troubled, but I would not say he is malicious. Another entity could very well have been influencing him.”

  
“Whether or not that proves true, a danger is still a danger no matter what form it comes.”

  
The other woman made no remark for a moment, and then another as the words the Queen said fully soaked into her mind and she understood them with totality. Even as she did, they did nothing in the way of swaying her decisions; her choices and what was still to be done.

  
“Yes, Your Majesty. I comprehend this very well and deeply respect the time you have taken to impart these words of wisdom on me.” She said with a telling bow; the deepest one she could offer. It was an apology, for she was not in the mind of taking heed of the advice.

  
“The boy was in need of my aid. And so long as he requires it, I shall offer assistance in any way I am able.”

  
Himiko slowly turned from her view of the sea glimmering in the late morning sun to look to the young and generous priestess still inclined by an impressive amount. “One can only imagine that it is your trade to blame for such unwavering kindness.”

“My dearest Priestess Tsuzu Rao,” it was only as the other woman raised her stance that the ruler of all Nippon continued her final words. “It is your wish that I never reveal the details of my visions and I shall continue to respect that preference. I have merely one request to ask of you.”

  
“Yes, my Queen. Whatever it may be, I shall fulfill it to the greatest of my abilities.”

  
Her strong, hard gaze softened about only a minute amount, but it showed great caring, great concern for whom it rested upon.

  
“Do not for one minute, for one second, let your guard down whilst the boy remains sheltered here. For that moment will be your greatest undoing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> himiko and rao were 200% a thing and there's nothing anyone can say to change my mind.  
> anyway, yeah, that's it. had a lot planned for this, but switching fandoms really killed that LOL!


End file.
